Acknowledgments
Gayle, who believes in me, a necessary condition for being a writer and for my overall peace of mind.
Special thanks to Seth Ballard, Gloria Lakritz, Paul Madsen, Eric Vollebregt, Nancy Witt. Your keen eyes made this a much better book.
Neil Jackson for a classic action cover.
Notes
The Project books take advantage of developments in weapons technology that may sound futuristic but are far from fictional, like the stealth helicopter used to penetrate Saudi Arabian airspace. These helicopters exist. It might have been one of these that was destroyed during the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan.
Onyx is also real, a sophisticated satellite ground penetrating radar system which surpasses anything else of its kind anywhere in the world. You can bet that the Pentagon is using it to scan for underground sites where rogue governments and potential enemies might be hiding something nasty.
The Kord heavy machine gun used by Al-Bayati's mercenaries is a good example of the developing sophistication of Russian weapons. It's rugged, light, accurate up to 2000 meters and fires a devastating 12.7 X 108 mm cartridge. It has the unique advantage of being light enough to mount on a bipod as an individual infantry weapon. There are many other weapons in the modern Russian arsenal as good or possibly better than anything in our own but I'll leave those for another time.
Moloch, or his alter ego, Baal, was a principle male god of the Carthaginians. There is significant evidence to indicate that human sacrifices were offered to him. The name Baal later morphed into Beelzelbub.
My apologies to the scientific world for destroying one of the great achievements of modern science, the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility at Grenoble. The scrolls of the Villa Literati in Herculaneum exist are one of the intriguing mysteries of the ancient world. Crystal x-ray tomography is an advanced technique developed at the facility. It has recently been used to begin unraveling the secrets of the ash encrusted scrolls, just as described in the book.
The remains of Solomon have never been found and identified. There is still much controversy over whether or not he actually existed. My personal preference is to believe that he did and that the story of the Queen of Sheba's visit found in the Old Testament is very likely based on actual events. The line identifying Sheba on her ossuary in the Ethiopian shrine comes from the Song of Solomon, one of the great love poems of all time.
About the Author
Alex Lukeman writes action/adventure thrillers featuring a covert intelligence unit called the PROJECT and is the author of the award-winning Amazon best seller, The Tesla Secret. Alex is a former Marine and psychotherapist. He uses his experience of the military and human nature to inform his work. He likes riding old, fast motorcycles and playing guitar, usually not at the same time. You can email him at alex@alexlukeman.com. He loves hearing from readers and promises he will get back to you.